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Source: 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey—Household Component* indicates that the estimates for ages 25-54 and 55-64 are statistically different at the 5% level. Expenditures are reported for individuals with a condition. Individuals with more than one condition are included in the means for each condition.

Source: 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey—Household Component* indicates that the estimate is significantly different from that for the lowest age category.

In the 2004-2006 period, there were on average 5.8 million policies per year purchased in the non-group (individual) insurance market, covering 9.1 million persons.

There were 4.0 million single policies with a mean premium of $2,909 (Table 9).

There were 1.8 million family policies covering 5.1 million individuals with a mean premium of $5,675.

For single policies, policyholders aged 40-54 ($3,570), policyholders aged 55-59 ($3,911), and policyholders aged 60-64 ($4,374) had premiums that were significantly higher than policyholders aged 0-39 ($1,714). The differences in mean premiums for policyholders aged 40-54 and 55-59 and for policyholders aged 55-59 and 60-64 were not statistically significant.

For family policies, policyholders aged 45-54 ($6,088), and policyholders aged 55-64 ($7,901) had premiums that were significantly higher than policyholders aged 0-44 ($4,275).

Financial Burdens

Go to Appendix Table A1 for more detailed information on this chart. Financial burden refers to people who have out-of-pocket costs for medical care and premiums that exceed 10% of the family's after-tax income.

Near-elderly individuals were consistently at greater risk of living with high financial burdens than adults ages 25-44, regardless of their insurance status (Figure 5).

Near-elderly individuals and those ages 45-54 with private nongroup coverage had similarly high burdens.